A state ruling coalition leader has taken Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz to task for making light of the concerns of Sabahan over the growing menace posed by the large presence of illegal immigrants in the state.

Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) leader Tham Nyip Shen, who is also state science and technology advisor, said he was 'utterly shocked' that Nazri could have said in Parliament recently "that the presence of foreigners, including those with IMM13 documents, did not cause social, security and economic problems in Sabah."

Tham, a former deputy chief minister, was quoted in local newspapers as saying he was shocked that such a statement could have come from a sennior minister like Nazri.

"He gave me the impression that Sabah is not part of Malaysia and therefore it is not a Malaysian problem," Tham said.

He added that "as a bona fide Malaysian living in Sabah, let me put on record once again that the illegal immigrant problem is genuine, serious and depressing (and) that it has plagued Sabah for many decades and yet still unresolved to this day."

According to Tham, the problems caused by these illegal immigrants ranged from petty crimes like house break-in to snatch theft to harassment by the "stateless children/street kids" to such serious crimes like robbery, murder and even hostage-taking in the case of Sipadan.

Tham said that if Nazri was genuinely ignorant of the issue, it would be better for him to keep his mouth shut, or to let someone else who has a better understanding of the issue do the talking.

"To my mind, if he does not understand the issue well, he should let someone who is more knowledgeable on the issue to answer the question raised by the MP for Tuaran, Wilfred Tangau.

"If he just wanted to brush aside the issue, then it would be grossly unfair and an insult to the people and leaders of Sabah," Tham said.

Tham, who heads his party's think-tank Institute of Public Policy Analysis (Pipa), has supported Tangau for continuing to raise issues on illegal immigrants and 'dubious citizens' in Sabah. He urged other Sabah MPs to do likewise.

On the Project IC or Project Mahathir , revealed recently by Parti Bersatu Sabah leader Dr Chong Eng Leong, Tham said the government must thoroughly investigate the allegations and make public the outcome of such investigation.

The issue of foreigners in possession of faked Malaysian identity cards in Sabah was a known fact and a matter of grave concern that no one could ignore, Tham was also quoted as saying.

UNHCR rep incident

Meanwhile, a former senior civil servant Wilfred Linggam said on Wednesday that the last United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Sabah foresaw the problems that many of the Filipino refugees would bring to the state.

"He (the UNHCR representative) immediately packed his bags and left Sabah after his wife was assaulted by Filipino refugees while shopping at the central market in Kota Kinabalu," he said.

"The UNHCR representative was in Sabah for about two years. He was supposed to stay on until the refugees were properly adjusted in Sabah.

"However, that incident made him change his view of these people completely. I was made to understand that based on his strong report, the UNHCR decided to stop sending representatives to be based in Sabah," Linggam said.

He said he was forced to reveal this because of Nazri's statement that the presence of the six Filipino refugee resettlement schemes and the inhabitants did not cause social, economic and security problems in Sabah.

He joined Consumer Association of Sabah and Labuan Federal Territory (Cash) president Patrick Sindu and secretary-general Joshua Kong in asking Nazri to resign over what he called "his insulting remarks to Sabahans."